Board 8 > Let's Go Crazy: A topic in which I rank the Prince albums

(+) Yeah! (+)

A year ago Friday we lost Prince. It still doesn't feel real to me, him being gone. And it's been a hard year, at least for me, since his passing. I've lost a lot. Heroes, family, friends, a job, and at times, hope. But while Prince is gone - which I can't believe, even as I've spent the weekend listening to his music and listening to and reading people's reflections on him - his music remains as an incredible legacy. Even more than I was before he died, I have been listening to a lot of his music. It's come on when I didn't expect it, in the middle of long training runs, or stuck in traffic. It's been one of the first things I turn to when the rest of my life goes south, even more so now. 1999 has been the only thing played on my turntable for weeks, even as new records from bands I love have arrived on my doorstep. I haven't listened to anything but Prince in over a week, as a sort of memorial.

I've spent a lot of time this weekend listening to Minneapolis' The Current, which has been playing all Prince all weekend, drinking whiskey and fine beers, and reflecting on all the things that have happened since then, good, bad, indifferent. What I keep coming to is this: As much as I love Prince, there are many parts of his body of work that I've never really given much of a chance (see: most of the 1990s, swaths of the 2000s).

So the plan is that we celebrate Prince, we listen to all the albums we can, we watch as I feebly try to make sense of nearly 40 studio albums, some live albums. Maybe some bootlegs. Definitely some side projects. I have no idea how long it will take, but that doesn't really matter, does it?

I'm not going to go in any particular order, or at any particular pace. I'm going to take my time and be thoughtful.

If you'd like to listen along, most of these albums are streamable in various places (Tidal has the most, and the hardest to find), if you don't have the means to get them otherwise.

The Prince Vault will be an indispensable help throughout this process, and really, your life if you are a big Prince fan.

http://www.princevault.com/index.php?title=Main_Page

I decided to RNG for the first one. I got 29, so I'll be doing Prince's 29th album first.

That's 2004's The Chocolate Invasion, which I will be posting about sometime tomorrow.
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https://resources.tidal.com/images/6b8be1ab/b016/4b7a/b269/41d5e240b208/1280x1280.jpg

Track List
"When Eye Lay My Hands on U" – 3:41
"Judas Smile" – 6:33
"Supercute" – 4:13
"Underneath the Cream" – 3:59
"My Medallion" – 5:07
"Vavoom" – 4:35
"High" – 5:05
"Sexmesexmenot" – 5:40
"Gamillah" – 3:09
"U Make My Sun Shine" – 7:05

Streamable: Tidal

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Truthfully, I had no idea what to expect coming into this. I'd heard "Supercute" before, but this was pretty good. Because it's sort of an assemblage of digitally released songs, there's not really a lot of thematic cohesion, but it doesn't really hurt; you never really get bored because it's constantly shifting. Some of the tracks, especially the opener, "When Eye Lay My Hands On U" are a little experimental, but mostly these ideas work. "Judas Smile" might be the one example where it really feels like nothing really comes together. "Gamillah", a slow, soft-jazz New Power Generation track, feels a little out of place at the tail end of what is an otherwise upbeat, danceable record, but in its own right it's kind of beautiful. It functions as a sort of lead-in to the slow-burn of the album closing ballad "U Make My Sun Shine", which has the feel of a very traditional Prince slow jam. It features Angie Stone on co-lead vocals and has a host of backing vocalists; it sort of feels like Prince doing a long-form take on an R. Kelly number.
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Song Ranking
Supercute
High
When Eye Lay My Hands on U
U Make My Sun Shine
Underneath the Cream
Sexmesexmenot
Gamillah
Vavoom
My Medallion
Judas Smile

Overall Score: 7/10
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Album #2: HITnRUN Phase Two

Truthfully, the random number I drew was for HITnRUN Phase Two, but while they are technically separate entities, I think my judgement of the second should probably be informed by the first.

I'll be giving this a listen tonight and tomorrow, maybe Tuesday as well, though that's unlikely given that I'm going to see The New Pornographers Tuesday evening.
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http://cdn3.pitchfork.com/albums/22289/977e7a45.jpg

HITnRUN Phase One

Track List
Million $ Show (3:10)
Shut This Down (3:03)
Ain't About To Stop (3:38)
Like A Mack (4:04)
This Could B Us (4:11)
Fallinlove2nite (3:12)
X's Face (2:38)
Hardrocklover (3:42)
Mr. Nelson (2:27)
1000 X's & O's (4:27)
June (3:21)

Streamable: Tidal (available for purchase on Google Play, iTunes, Amazon)

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This album is a little more of the hodgepodge I expected when I started The Chocolate Invasion. It's a sort of mix of R&B and drill music, which makes it jarring at times to listen to. Sometimes the two are brought together in an effective way - "Ain't About to Stop", and parts of "Shut This Down" - but mostly it's an uneven affair. Prince has never really had a knack with hip-hop - anyone who has listened to enough Prince has heard "Jughead" or "My Name is Prince" (about both of which more later) - even if he is able to identify what makes the hip-hop of the particular moment compelling. The tonal whiplash here extends beyond the mix of smooth R&B and Chicago hip-hop, though. "Hardrocklover" is about what you would expect from a track with that title: screeching guitars, traditional (if somewhat uninspired by Prince standards) rock structure. The remixed version of "This Could Be Us" gloms on layer after layer over what is otherwise a fantastic song. Mr. Nelson is just weird, and not in the usual fun way. The real gems in this album are at either end: a modernized version of song deep from the vault, "1000 X's & Os'" (previously known as "A Thousand Hugs and Kisses"; I'm not sure which of those titles is more Princely) and the simmering "June", which is sort of ethereal and surreal in a way Prince rarely was late in his career, end the album, and "Million $ Show", with its snippets of "Let's Go Crazy" and "1999" and big, warm brass section, and "Ain't About to Stop" are 2/3 of the opening salvo.
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Song Ranking
1000 X's & O's
June
Million $ Show
Ain't About to Stop
Fallinlove2nite
Hardrocklover
Shut This Down
Like a Mack
X's Face
Mr. Nelson
This Could Be Us (Remix)

Overall Score: 5/10
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(I realize I screwed up the post from yesterday, which should say Phase One instead of Phase Two the first instance)
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Next Album:

HITnRUN Phase Two
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